tonight on "nightline" -- inside apple. for the first time ever, we open the doors to the factory where all your i-things begin. where the sleek gadgets that have transformed your lives and revolutionized technology, are brought to life. >> okay. okay. >> i-factory. amid reports of unfair practices. it's become a line of controversy. with complete access to apple workers there, i'll tell you what they say about this mysterious place. and walking the line. get an unprecedented glimpse of the birthplace of your iphone. meet the people who built it. maybe you'll just think differently about america's most popular, and the world's most valuable brand.

>> announcer: this is a special edition of "nightline," i-factory, inside apple. good evening. i'm bill weir. so, how does a garage start-up become the most valuable company in the world? well, apple computer did it by selling 93 million iphones last year. and 40 million ipads. and the only reason they didn't sell more is that they can't make them fast enough. but that relentless demand has raised uncomfortable questions about how these precious objects are made, and how the people who make them are treated. a few weeks ago, the company invited ma ed me to witness the third-party audit, of foxconn. for the record, apple and our parent company, disney, have strong ties. but i only agreed to report

exactly what i saw. on this, the first look inside the i-factory. we arrive at dawn. is this the entrance? no idea what to expect. but eager for a glimpse of the mysterious place that builds the stuff that fills our lives. we're met by a top foxconn executive, who refuses to confirm that inside all these buildings, they're working on top-secret projects for intel, nintendo, dell and many others. there we go. but apple has allowed him to show me how they build the world's most popular objects of desire. ♪ beat the tide >> reporter: the one that turned a garage start-up into a company more valuable than exxon. a company more beloved than any other. i'm told this is the first time that any reporter in any country has been allowed to see this.

we will don static-proof jackets, or full bunny suits. and take air showers because one speck of dust can ruin an entire line. there is one obvious reason for apple's legendary secrecy over the years. if the world sees this line -- it might change the way people think in this line. unlike any other product, the launch of a sexy, new apple gadget, is a cultural event. and that comes in part, from a mystique, operated brilliantly by steve jobs. >> it's really extraordinary. i urge you to get your hands on one and see for yourself. >> reporter: i'll admit, i'm among the millions who bought into the idea that these are not just dependable alliances. they're works of art. carefully wrapped pristine boxes. lovingly sold in museum-like stores. i don't know about you, but when

enjoying a delicious steak, knowing where it came from changes the experience. how many steps are there? >> 141. >> reporter: 141 steps. but it is time now, to think different, about apple. because here it is. this is where your iphone was born. this is how it came to life. i'm first struck how young they are. not 13, like some of the horror stories i heard. but 17, 18. no one looked over 30. i know many came from poor villages, out in the countryside, with the hope of making $2 an hour. but their hair cuts proved that teen style is everywhere. i was expecting more automated assembly. more robots. but it's to dazzle, inspire and change the lives of 8 to 80, are mostly made by hand. after hand. after hand. behold the camera mad you'll for the ipad. look how tiny and intricate this is. and get this.

with two shifts, they can make 300,000 of these in a single day. it takes around 5 days and 325 sets of hands to assemble an ipad, they tell me. they can turn a hunk of aluminum, into an ipad, at the rate of 10,000 an hour. at the end of the process, i find this 27-year-old, who carves the aluminum burrs from 3,000 apples every shift. what are you thinking about when you're working? a lot of times i think about how tired i am, the mother of two tells me. i think about resting. a supervisor will give the occasional order in mandarin. but on this line, the machines do most of the talking. while people work in silence. they will repeat that motion and

hear that fembot voice a few more times before lunch. their 12-hour shifts are broken up by 2 hour-long meal breaks, where they pay 70 cents for a meal of meat and rice. if they eat fast enough, they can catch a couple winks back on the line. they tell me, it's not exhaustion. but a chinese postmeal tradition. so, this is home. how long have you worked here? lived here? after 12 hours here, many go to a nearby dormroom they share with seven other workers. there's an internet cafe. a soccer field. they offer classes in english and other studies. most are here to work. most left their families to work because back home, there are few good jobs. but beyond the long hours and the relentless rhythm of the production lines, there was something else at foxconn that made the biggest impression.

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>> announcer: this special edition of "nightline," "ifactory: inside apple," continues with bill weir. if you've ever visited the foxconn factory in china, it's hard to miss the nets. and it's hard not to get them out of your mind when you leave. it's there to keep the people from taking a deadly leap off the roof. an executive admits that without the nets, and the suicide cluster that produced them, we weren't be looking inside the

ifactory tonight. the suicide nets went up in the spring of 2010, when nine foxconn workers jumped to their deaths in a span of three months. a total of 18 employees took their own lives or tried to in recent years. and given the company's massive size, foxconn's suicide rate is well below china's national average. one reason louis wu, our executive host said, it took several months and several suicides, before foxconn and apple were shaken into action. >> at the beginning, we see a few suicides. but we didn't really see there was an effect. until the fifth or the sixth one. >> reporter: he says apple's number two man at the top, tim cook, flew to shenzhen, and helped build a team of experts, to make nets, to make impulsive souls think twice before jumping. foxconn raised wages and they

opened up this counseling center. why do you think they happened at the same time? there are many reasons, she tells me. but they had mostly to do with the migrant workers, their state of mind, how they cope with society. also, it's hard to make friends here, she says. but it wasn't just the suicides that caught the world's attention. >> explosion hit a foxconn plant. >> reporter: last year, poorly-ventilated aluminum dust led to two separate explosions, killing 4, injuring 77. there is one labor rights group in the country who claims they tried to warn you about combustible dust before the explosions. is that true? do you have regrets about not doing more sooner? >> when you asked me whether we feel we could have done a lot more or better to our work -- that explosion, absolutely.

we were devastated. >> apple takes working conditions very, very seriously. and we have for a very long time. >> reporter: apple declined my repeated request, to interview new ceo, tim cook. but referred us to his statements at a goldman sachs investor conference last week. >> we don't let anyone cut corners on safety. >> reporter: but now, more than ever, they are trying to prove that to the world. until this year, apple had never released the names of the suppliers. they almost doubled the number of supplier audited performed last year. and a few months ago, they decided to join the fair labor association. and we were there, when the head of the fla, arrived to begin the largest-ever audit of 23foxconn. this is not a surprise inspection. >> no. >> reporter: how do you know they're not putting on a show for you if they expect you're coming. >> i expect them to put on a show for us. but we have a bottom-up method

that surfaces up. over the next couple of days, everything will surface. >> reporter: it's fair to note that apple is one of many foxconn customers. and most of them have escaped the recent storm of bad publicity. as one of the fla auditors explains, the biggest and the most visible brands, often take the heat for the entire industry. why the timing of this? >> we call it the nike moment. there was a moment before nike, in the '90s, when they got a lot of publicity. negative publicity. and they weren't the worst. they aren't worse than anybody else. it's just that the publicity started to build up. >> reporter: part of the fair labor association team scours time cards and pay records. while another uses, yes, ipads to beam the anonymous grievances to 35,000 workers to a server in new zealand. apple promised we could talk to anyone, anywhere on their foxconn lines. when we come back, you'll see me take them up on that offer. we'll show you the kind of place

many of the workers come from. and why they rush the foxconn gates when this special edition of "nightline" continues. ♪ [ doug ] i been lobstering about all my life. i'm a lobstergirl. [ laughs ] [ laura ] top quality lobster is all we catch. [ male announcer ] it's lobsterfest at red lobster. the one time of year you can savor 12 exciting lobster entrees, like lobster lover's dream or new maine lobster and shrimp trio. [ doug ] the sweet, succulent meat. that's a good-tasting lobster. [ laura ] i'll eat it any way i can. [ doug ] we're the mclennan family from spruce head, maine, and we sea food differently. [ doug ] we're the mclennan family from spruce head, maine, to find you a great deal, even if it's not with us. [ ding ] oh, that's helpful! well, our company does that, too. actually, we invented that.

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. given the grim headlines about foxconn in recent years, you might wonder why anyone would ever want to work there. but as our exclusive look reveals, china has very different values when it comes to gainful employment. monday morning at the foxconn recruiting center and over 3,000 people have been lined up since the wee hours, all desperate to work for apple's biggest supplier. why do you want to work here? i heard the work is hard here,

says this 18-year-old. but i want to get some experience. i ask another, if she's heard of the notorious suicides at foxconn. does that worry you? does it scare you? i don't think it has much to do with the company, she says. they wait in a patient mass, hope to land a starting salary of the prompted $1.78. unless they work 47 overtime hours a month, the chinese government will consider them too poor to withdraw any taxes. but to this crowd, that doesn't seem to matter. desire trumps discipline. a stampede. and ignores police whistles, they rush the gates. eager to wave a national i.d. card across an electronic reader. those who hear a satisfying beep are sent in thp those with bogus i.d.s are sent away. the demand is so high, foxconn will hire 80% of the people today. good news for those who traveled

by bus all night, and are ready to move in. after three days of training, what foxconn calls team-building, the new hires will be sitting on a production line. so, this is home. and many of them will pay $17.50 a month, to move into a dorm like this, with seven strangers. you get a sense of how this compares to their homes. we travelled to a village outside the industrial town of chengdu. where a single family might live in a room like this. that's your heat. oh, i see. they have heard of foxconn, they've never seen an ipad. so, this is what they make at foxconn. it's called an ipad. and since the young people left to work in the factories, they say everything is better. you eat better. you have better clothes. more to do? yes, they say. everything. wow. meanwhile, back in the apple

lines of shenzhen, the fair labor association audit continues. >> they really push this stuff out. >> reporter: apple paid $250,000 to join this group. and apple is paying for this audit, making critics worry about a conflict of interest. but the fla insists that when they publish this report, any whitewash will be obvious. what are you looking for? behavior traits? physical characteristics? what? >> definitely. one of them is workers make -- will they look up even. we come in here. we're outsiders. we're an object of curiosity. and i want to know, can they express that curiosity. can they steal a glance? i've gone into facilities where people won't look up. they're really intimidated. >> reporter: i'm bill. since apple encouraged us to approach anyone on their lines, we did. what goes through your mind when you do the same thing over? we met people on and off the

factory complex. did you move here for this job? on and off the record. you can be honest. and it became quickly obvious, that a strange american with a camera crew only gets so much candor. if there was one thing you could change about your job here, what would it be? but plenty of people had no problem tells me that the dorms are too crowded. and the trees block the sunshine. and the food prices are too high. we heard the kind of complaints you'd hear at any factory or college campus. and even the wages have doubled since the suicide nets went up. most everyone complained about low pay. but in china, other than complaining, there's very little they can do about it. right now, american-style unions don't exist here. but louis woo admits, in the next few heres, they could take hold. and that would be major news. when 150 nonapple foxconn workers had demands in january, they went up to a factory roof

and threatened to jump. what happened? >> i think first of all, it's not because of pay. it's part of the negotiation process. i'm very happy, you know, everything was resolved. >> reporter: a sobering kind of collective bargaining right there. >> yes. absolutely. >> reporter: if apple came to you and said, out of the goodness of our heart, because we're doing so well, we want to pay everyone who touches an ipad double, could you do that? >> why not? that would be good for the employees. right? and also, definitely good for china. and definitely good for us because we would have more stable workers, who would love to work for our company because they would get paid a lot more than anyone else. >> and maybe, one day, they might be able to actually afford the products they build. when the fair labor association report is released in a couple of weeks, we'll have it. and apple and foxconn